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Tuesday, September 29, 2015

After the FFG Forums Vassal Tournament ended, I asked each of the top four players to share their thoughts about the tournament. I asked each one a set of 8 questions:

1: Describe your list for the tournament.
2: What was your general strategy going into the tournament with your list?
3: Did this strategy change during the course of the tournament?
4: Describe your R1 game: What was your opponent? Your strategy for dealing with them? What went right, what went wrong?
5: Same for R2.
6: Same for R3.
7: Anything you would do to alter your strategy going forward?
8: Speaking of the future, With wave 2 coming out, how will what you know about the spoilers change your play style?

Here is the first one - JJs Juggernaut. Overall 2nd place, and my 3rd round opponent who bounced me from a top finish. Here are his answers in his own words:

1: Describe your list for the tournament.

My list was one I hadn't actually played before, but had seen played and discussed on several occasions. In fact my best friend used a nearly identical list (using my ships since he hasn't bought into Armada) to win a local tournament. The list is as follows:
List: Rebels

Objectives: I don't remember exactly, but I believe they were Advanced Gunnery, Dangerous Territory, and Fire Lanes.

2: What was your general strategy going into the tournament with your list?

The goal of this list was simple, to form a gun line and blow the opponent out of the water. I built right to 300 points since I felt confident in most of the objective choices an opponent might give me. I would start at an angle with Paragon in the lead and kite outwards using Jaina's light to stall activations and take flanking shots from long range. My fighter screen would tie down bombers first, then fighters.

3: Did this strategy change during the course of the tournament?

Over the two games I played in the tournament, my strategy didn't really change much, however by the end of the tournament I had a few new ideas from what I learned, but more on that later.

4: Describe your R1 game: What was your opponent? Your strategy for dealing with them? What went right, what went wrong?

The first round of the tournament I had a bye, so I came away with an 8-2 victory with a very small MoV, although it was a win it wasn't very satisfying, I would have rather played a game for the fun aspect, as well as the opportunity for a larger win, which could have given me first place overall.

5: Describe your R2 game: What was your opponent? Your strategy for dealing with them? What went right, what went wrong?

Second round was a game versus Truthiness in which I managed a 180 MoV for a 9-1 win. I was second player and Advanced Gunnery was chosen. Our lists were very similar, except instead of Garm and a corvette he had Dodonna and a large squadron group including several B-wings and Luke. After the obstacle set up I was the game would go one of two ways, first my opponent would turn into me through the asteroids, which would have given me the advantage, or he would circle way out which would most likely result in no ship being killed in the game. My opponent opted to not put himself at a disadvantage and circled wide while moving his squadrons to intercept me. My screen held them down for a few turns before dying, but they did their job. Since there were no ship targets, my A version assault frigate opened up with advanced gunnery and shredded the B-wings in a few turns while taking minimal return fire. The game would have ended a 5-5 or a 6-4, but my opponent got a little overzealous in chasing my frigates and was un able to turn around before flying off the board.
This game really proved to me that at least in this list the A version of the assault frigate has its worth. It also showed that in assault frigate mirror matches there is a much greater chance of a 5-5 (dream crusher) result if you don't setup in a way to force an engagement.

6: Describe your R3 game: What was your opponent? Your strategy for dealing with them? What went right, what went wrong?

Third round was versus our TO BiggsIRL (Editor's note: That's me!) (shout out once again for all the effort in putting this together). I managed a 71 MoV, 7-3 win I was first player and chose Fleet Ambush since I knew all it would mean is my corvette would be a turn behind and it would definitely force an engagement. I placed both my frigates in a position to attack turn one while still be able to make for the station later if need be. Biggs was running a single frigate with Mon Mothma as well as two corvettes. I planned to block his frigate's movement if possible to make sure it would get out of range before I finished it off. I was able to tie down his squadrons with my screen while my frigates tore his corvettes apart. Jaina's light joined the fight, but I moved it too far on the flank to hinder my opponent's frigate's movement. This resulted In it getting out of range and being able to avoid my ships for the remainder of the game. I nearly made the mistake my Truthiness made in round one and flew Paragon off the board in an overzealous attempt to chase my target, but I just barely stayed on the board.
Overall this match when as planned, except for not blocking Biggs's frigate which allowed it to escape. From this match I've also cemented the fact that I will never take Fleet Ambush in a rebel fleet. Although it can help get your opponent closer, many lists are okay with splitting their forces since they can have fast ships catch up to the battle it no time at all.

7: Anything you would do to alter your strategy going forward?

After playing a little with this list I really like it and its definitely a solid contender, at least until wave two. I found the Paragon + Sensor Team combo really worked well. It a great way to concentrate firepower, but it does take correct maneuvering. I took the A version assault frigate for that extra blue out the front since it increases firepower with this combo, but I was really surprised at how the AA shredded some rebel fighters. While I like the combo I think I would stick with Gunnery Teams in the future since its 3 less points and throws more dice more consistently. The accuracy generation is awesome, but not quite consistent enough with needing to spend a die. However I may still consider keeping at least one frigate as an A variant for that AA.
Another thing I noticed with this list is you have to be very careful to avoid setting up in a situation that results in a circle chase as vs another speed 3 list very little will get done and while you may not lose you probably won't get a large MoV win either.

8: Speaking of the future, With wave 2 coming out, how will what you know about the spoilers change your play style?

To answer the last question, I'm super excited for wave 2. It's going to shake things up in regard to squadrons, which I would love to see, since I haven't played as much with them as I should yet. I'm definitely bringing larger fighter screens, and maybe I'll dive into some bomber builds as well. I'm also really excited to see the changes to our "meta" which is getting a little predictable. However the thing I'm most excited for is the MC30. I've been a huge proponent of the Neb-b and one of my favorite lists was a 3 Neb jousting list with a CR90. It suffered from several issues, one being it lacked the maneuverability (or I lacked to skill) to use it against double or triple assault frigate lists. Against Imperials I always won 8-2, 9-1, or 10-0. The second weakness was when I get in so close I was losing ships before they activated. So with wave 2 and the increase to 400 pts I'm planning on revamping my list with 2 MC30s and Reikan. This should give me a faster flanking/blocker to use against assault frigates as well as a gladiator counter. Maybe as my skill increases I can drop Reikan (since he is a lose less type of admiral), but I'll have to see how it plays out. I'm definitely going to try out Ackbar with 3 assault frigates as well though.